Strategic Mating Partner Chapter 28

We Sports would take him in, but they’d take a smaller cut of the commission. If things went south, they could terminate the contract due to the athlete’s behavioral issues and send him back, but they seemed to think he was too valuable for that. Apparently, he’s a truly talented prospect. If only he would open up a little….

It’s about money again. Taehyun clicked his tongue internally. He could picture the situation clearly: the athlete was talented enough to win medals, so they didn’t want to lose him to another agency, but he was too difficult to manage. But Taehyun didn’t have any brilliant solutions either. Did they think he was some kind of celebrity that everyone adored without having to do anything?

“Hyung, just in case, I’m not someone that all kids follow….”

Taehyun carefully laid the groundwork to naturally refuse the impending request. His manager quickly interrupted him.

Oh, come on, of course! I wouldn’t ask you to do something unreasonable. I’m just saying it would be great if you could help out a little. An eighteen-year-old boy has come all the way to Korea alone, imagine how lonely he must be. Since you’re good with younger people and have some time on your hands, I was wondering if you could just talk to him, help him settle down in Korea, that sort of thing.

That’s exactly what makes it an unreasonable request. Taehyun groaned internally. And eighteen? How was he supposed to take care of an eighteen-year-old, when the concept of seniority barely registered at that age? Frankly, it was baffling. The reason Taehyun was popular with kids that age was because they admired his position.

Even without any Olympic achievements yet, Taehyun had long been established as a sports star, a champion of the Asian Games. Despite being unfairly robbed of his chance at his first Olympics, he had immediately redeemed himself at the next international competition. With his refreshing and easygoing personality, he had even made a name for himself on variety shows, making him a celebrity among athletes.

It wasn’t just young kids; most athletes wanted to be friends with Taehyun. He maintained a clean-cut image and had a tendency to personally look after and help those he was close to, making him a valuable connection. It was only natural that athletes, for whom connections were their only asset besides their physical abilities, wanted to get close to Taehyun.

But if the athlete in question had no intention of properly pursuing his career in Korea? That was beyond Taehyun’s expertise. Taehyun’s strength lay in encouragement, not in disciplining or guiding delinquents. Taehyun replied, unable to hide his discomfort,

“Exactly. I’m not someone that all kids automatically like. Only those who are motivated to work hard follow me. I can’t change someone who has no intention of trying from the start.”

Furthermore, it was absurd to entrust Taehyun, a fellow athlete, with dealing with a situation involving a violent incident, regardless of its severity, instead of a professional agent or manager. Taehyun made up his mind to refuse and waited for his manager’s response.

No, I’m not asking you to do any grand persuasion, just to keep an eye on him for a while. He’s already been suspended from joint training for a month due to disciplinary action within the national team. If someone has to be with him anyway, I thought you might be more approachable since you’re closer in age.

Taehyun raised his eyebrows again. How was an eighteen-year-old and a twenty-four-year-old close in age? For a six-year age gap to be considered “close,” they should be at least forty-two and forty-eight, shouldn’t they? Taehyun sighed at the continued absurdity.

“Well, I don’t think it’s as simple as you think….”

Honestly, being out and meeting someone would be better for his mental health than being stuck at home, but if that someone wasn’t a friend, senior, or junior, but a much younger problem child from a different sport who had caused a violent incident, even Taehyun wouldn’t know what to do. It was better to refuse. Just as Taehyun reaffirmed his decision, his manager said something that swayed him.

Just meet him once. From what I’ve heard, he has no one to connect with right now. It seems his parents aren’t very supportive of his athletic career either. No friends, no acquaintances, imagine how lonely he must be, coming all this way.

That one sentence stopped Taehyun in his tracks. He pressed his throbbing temples and asked,

“What’s this about his parents?”

Well, his guardian is his mother. She has a job in France, so she couldn’t come with him to Korea. And because of the sponsorship conditions he had since he was young, he’s competing for the Korean national team, so she said it’s his responsibility to take care of the rest. He’s eighteen, not an elementary school student. At that age, you could be a parent here….

It didn’t sound like something an ordinary parent would say. He wasn’t sure about France, but in Korea, eighteen-year-olds couldn’t even get a postpaid transportation card without their parents’ guarantee. There were countless parents who worried about their adult children going abroad alone, so to send an eighteen-year-old to a faraway country with such indifference… They must be unusual parents. And that bothered him. Taehyun’s parents were far from ordinary too.

So just meet him once. Who knows, maybe he’ll recognize you and want to rely on you. It’s his first time in Korea. He speaks Korean well enough to communicate since he uses it at home, but he needs someone to talk to properly.

But that’s unlikely. With a long sigh, Taehyun finally nodded.

“Okay. I’ll just meet him once.”

Good, that’s the spirit. Don’t just stay cooped up at home, go out and get some fresh air. Rest is important, but lying down all the time isn’t good either.

What was that? Wasn’t that just an excuse to push the troublesome kid onto Taehyun? Taehyun sighed again and shook his head. He had a bad feeling, like a storm was brewing. These feelings were never wrong.

🤺

And the very next day, Taehyun was called in as the relief pitcher to quell the emergency. He had heard that the situation wasn’t good, but he hadn’t expected it to be this sudden, leaving him flustered. What am I supposed to do by suddenly showing up like this? I’ll probably just annoy him more. The information he had received about the athlete was limited: his only guardian, his mother, wasn’t very supportive; he was of French origin but looked like an ordinary Korean, not mixed race; and his sport was fencing. He had no idea how to approach him.

‘Why fencing of all things….’

He didn’t have any bad relationships with fencers, but he didn’t have particularly positive feelings towards them either. Since the introduction of electronic body protectors in Taekwondo matches in the early 2000s, the nature of the sparring matches Taehyun participated in had changed significantly, becoming more about strategic footwork. Even before, kicks were the primary scoring method, so matches often resembled a sword fight with feet. However, this became even more pronounced with the change in scoring method to electronic body protectors. As a result, instead of the dynamic, exciting matches people expected, there were often tedious, drawn-out exchanges of foot jabs, leading to Taekwondo being derisively called “foot fencing.”

So, it was more like a lingering resentment towards fencing itself rather than any ill feelings towards the athletes. It wasn’t that they had done anything wrong, but it wasn’t a pleasant taunt to hear, so he felt a bit uncomfortable.

‘I don’t intend to show it, though….’

Since they probably harbored some resentment towards the use of fencing as a derogatory term, they might not have a positive image of him either. That worry weighed on his mind.